1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a replacement unit used in an electronic apparatus, and, more particularly, to a replacement unit that can store an operation program that controls an electronic apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, firmware that is executed by a printer apparatus is upgraded to deal with problems on functions already installed. When upgrading the firmware, a service engineer updates the firmware of the printer apparatus by downloading updated firmware directly to the printer apparatus over a network, or transferring the updated firmware to the printer apparatus from an external medium.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open (JP-A) No. 2000-200187 proposes a technique of automatically updating firmware via a network. The firmware is downloaded via the network in response to version-upgrade information sent from a management server. Accordingly, the firmware can be kept updated to the latest version.
However, automatically downloading of the firmware can create issues if, for example, expendable items or the like connected to the image forming apparatus are not compatible with the updated firmware. That is, in the conventional technique it is difficult to determine appropriate firmware according to the status of the image forming apparatus and update the installed firmware to the appropriate one.